this weekend while we contemplate do we want to risk that again? we must also think about the veterans who still face many burdens and many challenges. we should love our troops that have given their lives this weekend and remember those veterans that are still among us. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. hillary clinton, winter soldier. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in truly beautiful san francisco, and today hillary clinton signed up for president obama's fight with the islamic state. asked about the recent setbacks fighting isis she said she agrees with the president's policies. meanwhile, the republicans signing up to oppose her in 2016 are all competing to show how

much they are like each other. are they all suiting up for the clown car? eugene robinson is a pulitzer prize winning columnist with the "washington post" and j.p. becker. when president obama was asked if we were losing and he said no, i don't think we're losing and i just talked to our centcom commanders and the folks on the ground we're eight months into what we've always thought would be a multi-year campaign and today hillary clinton threw her weight behind the commander in chief. >> i basically agree with the policy that we are currently following, and that is american air support is available. american intelligence and surveillance is available. american trainers are trying to undo the damage that was done to the iraqi army by former prime minister maliki. this has to be fought by and won by iraqis.

there is no role whatsoever for american soldiers on the ground to go back other than in the capacity as trainers and advisers. >> there's so much in that answer, gene. give me your sense, unpack it for us what she was saying there. >> she's basically saying no boots on the ground or no combat boots on ground and she was more definitive on that than i might have expected her to be. she said she basically agrees with obama's policy. that gives her some wiggle room to disagree on some details or if things really go south to say, well i actually would have done it this slightly different way, but clearly she has no sort of desire to wade into iraq and says the iraqis have to do tit. >> what amazed me mostly politicians to generalize, shift away from something that doesn't look like it's working, and right now it doesn't look like our policy and program of going after isis is working with the

fall of these cities like palmyra and mosul and the rest of them. what do you think of the president's policy per se in strategic terms? do we have a strategy? do we have a plan, or are we just sort of holding it the best we can? >> i don't think we have a clear strategy. i think we're looking to make the optics of having an impact on this but we're not really taking an aggressive stand on it, and it's a complicated equation. a lot of what we do if we were to be more' grace "f.w." our air strikes, providing air cover, would be assisting the syrian regime or assisting the iranian regime so everything we do has kind of cascading consequences. i think, you know certainly i would agree we should not be looking to put ground groups into this situation and -- and possibly that we should not be trying to get deeper into it even from the air strike perfective. >> well, what would you work against isis anything? >> i think that this is a regional conflict. i think there's going to be unfortunately, that we're going

to have to see a reset of the political system in the middle east before we see real change on this. if we're committed to doing air strikes, however, i think that there's more that we can do. we can be more aggressive about, for instance taking out the roads in between key centers in isis territory. we could take out their cell towers and electricity a lot of stuff we could do without necessarily incuring a lot of civilian casualties. >> well, while hillary clinton and the president are getting together on isis policy such as it is, the republican party is offering what you might call a whitman sampler in how to combat isis. try these. >> we need to arm the kurds and we need to use the peshmerga as boots on the ground. they are effective and ready. they are our close allies. >> i would go one step further would i arm the kurds and offer them a homeland. >> i like the idea senator corker is pushing, creating a safe zone for the creation of a free syrian army which we should have been three years ago but

begin that proses. >> we need so say that our objective is to eliminate bashar assad as well. >> put together a coalition of armed forces with u.s. special operations force and provide logistical support and intelligence support and the most devastating air support possible and you will wipe isis out. >> gene, it strikes me that these guys aren't that familiar with what they are talking about, fair enough. they are generalists and when they get in office they are will get information. they all mention the kurds. er in the most western-like people, always loyal to us and reasonable to deal with and you say how great they are and then say let's get rid of bashar assad. is mccain still on the neo-conwagon here? does he have to go back and say the same old stuff that the hard right on the neo-confront wants to do is knock off another arab government? they always seem to have one in their pez machine.

let's knock off one more and we'll get to syria because we've been to libya and iraq. let's go to one more and they -- and, of course get -- to get to iran eventually to get to the persians. that's all they ever want to do. why is mccain still on that wagon. we've learned it doesn't work. >> you know the assad regime is an odious regime a brutal regime that used chemical weapons on its own people, a horrible man, a horrible government. however, what he's talking about is, what? the invasion of syria. i mean we're going to wade in and solve the syrian civil war, and by the way we're also going to bring peace to iraq. i mean this is -- this is -- this is some sort of weird and dystopian fantasy, and unless you're talking about marshalling another couple hundred thousand troops and doing another invasion of iraq and syria, i mean, how are you possibly going to achieve what john mccain is

talking about? >> j.m. it seems like the idealogs who got us into iraq is continuing on this front. brought down regime change to all the countries and they are going for the last that's bashar assad. how do we fight bashar assad and fight isis and basically begin to wage war through bombing raids on their nuclear facilities, iran? i mean how many fronts do these people want us fighting on and is it feasible for even our grand army to take on that campaign? >> well i think it is a stretch to say that we can do all of these things or any one of them. i mean i think that fundamentally we have an attribution problem in the middle east. we sort of allowed our allies in the middle east to rely on us to do the heavy lifting and different kinds of military activities. ultimately i think that they will have to take ownership of what's going on in the region and deal with it themselves and we can support them as allies but i think that you know our fundamental problem in the middle east is that we take the

blame for everything and you know, the solution for that is not to stage another invasion. >> well, j.m. here's the question marco rubio, a fairly smart guy and certainly an exciting public speaker and i go wait a minute. who wouldn't like to see a grand army of all the arab nations, sort of the regional countries, mostly sunni, all getting together and having a big army like in "lawrence of arabia" and bringing down isis and even back in the gulf war the arab league we behind us with george bush i. what is the -- what is the precedent for a grand army of all these countries coming in on our side against isis? has it ever been done? >> i don't think there's a modern precedent, i'm sorry. >> no. i was going to say t.e. lawrence. that's basically the precedent that i can think of. >> yeah. anthony quinn was leading one of those armies.

anyway, thank you, j.m. berger and eugene rob soviet republic. as bad as it looks for the anti-isis efforts by the president, it doesn't look like toys' lot more bigger idea on the other side of how to do it. coming up, there's an old saying democrats fall in love and republicans fall in line and it looks like the 2016 republican presidential candidates are falling all over each other to fall in line with the party's right wing even if it means disc earlier more moderate positions. plus two big stories on the equality front. first, the polls are closed in ireland today and supporters are optimistic that they have got the votes today to pass an historic referendum legalizing same-sex marriage in ireland, of all places. and meanwhile here at home the head of the boy scouts former defense secretary, robert gates, the man who oversought end of the military's don't ask don't tell policy calls for an end to the ban on day scout masters. that's fascinating. and looking what happens when president obama, president obama joined twitter this week. his critics came out, too,

spewing racist vitriol. that's been underground and this is "hardball," the place for politics. it makes a lot of other cards seem one-sided. why do we do it? why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people? why are we so committed to keeping you connected? why combine performance with a conscience? why innovate for a future without accidents? why do any of it? why do all of it? because if it matters to you it's everything to us. the xc60 crossover. from volvo. lease the well equiped volvo xc60 today. visit your local volvo showroom for details. are you still getting heartburn flare-ups? time for a new routine. try nexium® 24hr. the latest choice for frequent heartburn. get complete protection. nexium level protection.

this is wild for the first time in gallup poll history there's as many social liberals in this country as there are social conservatives. according to gallup 32% of american adults say they are liberal on social issues. 31% say they are conservative. and that's the highest percentage of social liberals and the lowest percentage of social conservatives since gallup began asking the question 16 years ago. and we'll be right back. and...who has one starting price for gas or hybrid? mkz hybrid again upstaged them. it's the final days of the lincoln luxury uncovered event. lease mkz or mkz hybrid for $289 a month. plus for a limited time competitive owners and lessees get one-thousand dollars bonus cash.

can you envision a world where are the right penalties and waiting periods and requirements that people will get citizenship? >> sure, i think it makes sense. >> sure. welcome back to "hardball." that was wisconsin governor scott walkner 2013 when he backed a path to citizenship for people who come to this question

illegally. two years later now the likely presidential candidate sounds very different. here he is. >> i'm not talking about amnesty, and the reason for that is over time i think -- >> you said you supported it. >> and my view has changed. i'm flat out saying. candidates can say that. sometimes they don't. i'm saying -- >> so you changed from 2013? >> absolutely. >> well governor walker denies he's a flip-flopper. >> a flip would be someone who voted on something and did something different. these are are not votes that -- i don't have any impact in immigration as a governor and don't have any impact as a former county official. >> well, governor walker's moved to the right on this on immigration, matches many of his fellow 2016 contenders shifting to the right on education, immigration, on national security and even on hating obama. louisiana governor bobby jindal once supported common core and now he's a strong critic. back in 2013 jeb bush told conservatives not to be anti-science. here he was. >> way too many people believe republicans are anti-immigrant

anti-woman, anti-science anti-gay, anti-workers and the list goes on and on and on. >> and this week he called people to say climate change is manmade -- those who say it's manmade are arrogant. >> the climate is changing. i don't think the science is clear of what percentage is manmade and what percentage is natural. i just don't -- it's convoluted and for people to say the science has decided on this is really arrogant to be honest with you. it's this intellectual arrogance that now you can't have a conversation about it even. >> in 2016 conformity seems to be key for republicans. it's the old patterns where democrats fall in love and republicans are now falls in line. well, the "washington post" sean sullivan wrote about the republican candidates' lurch to the right and david corn washington bureau chief for "mother jones" and moobz political analyst. mary kay letourneau me start with david because i know you've got cultural views on the republican party, as i do and i

just wondered do you think there's something in them that says we all have to like golf and watch, whatever the kentucky derby together and all have to dress the same way and say the same phrases that we have to use. it's a very conformist culture is. that's what's going on here or is it run for your life, have to get as far right as upon because the battle this year is over who hates obama the most? >> i think you pointed out what we used to call country club republicans which jeb bush used to be the epitome of and i don't think that's the problem of. i think the problem goes back to the tea party base. the tea party fever has not burned itself out yet in the republican party, and i think everyone is coming to the realization that those who are running for president in 2016 that the only way they can win is by you know catering or courting or pandering to that part of the party. jeb bush only a few months ago that said you might have to lose the primary to win the general and in a lot of ways that doesn't make sense.

that's how the game is played but basically he was talking about taking on some of the tea party assumptions and ideologies, and he clearly has come to the conclusion that that's not the way to get the nomination. >> you know, shawn, it seems like everybody in the republican party is running as a hawk all sound to the right of netanyahu if possible. they are all, it seems to me anti-science because nobody wants to be caught believing in manmade climate change don't believe in common core setting standards for u.s. education especially in middle school and high school. don't want any of that. are they allowed to disagree anymore or is that just unrepublican in. >> on two main issues immigration and national security which you mentioned, the party itself has certainly moved to the right since the last presidential election. after that election after mitt romney's loss, there was a lot of talk in the republican circles we've got to tackle

immigration reform can't do this poorly among hispanic and then you saw president obama taking executive action and that enraged the republican base and republicans have moved to the right and seeing the same thing on national security anti-war war-weary sentiment, simply not there anymore. concerns about islamic state and concerns on the terrorism have been on the rise. each of these republicans, it seems like is trying to one up the other one and seem like the most hawkish and the most aggressive foreign policy figure in this field and they are all trying to stand out and what -- what we're seeing is a -- you know, a race to see who can be the most aggressive. and we're seeing that certainly play out in the rhetoric on the campaign trail. >> yeah. i think -- upcoming debates in august and september will be anger management and every republican contender except for rand paul harbors hawkish views.

they all talked about isis and going after them militarily. let's watch. >> leading from behind is not a foreign policy. we need to re-engage with the rest of the world, that our friends know that we're not just here this week or next, that we're in it for the long haul and our enemies need to twitch a little bit. they need to fear us a little bit. >> it is heartbreaking to see iraq fall apart, and the only way i know to defend this nation is for some of our soldiers to go back and partner with the iraqis to stop isil before it's too late. >> people ask what should our strategy be on globalgy hath hadists and terrorists? i refer them to the movie "taken. "we will look for you. we will find you and we will kill you. >> we need a president who is going to back away from that deal in iran and set the record straight. >> and let there be no doubt israel will know as will the whole world that we are their trusted friend and the ayatollahs of iran will know

that hell will freeze over before they get a nuclear weapon. >> anyway a new poll -- a pew poll should some light on the atmosphere in the republican party heading into 2016. thee-quarters of republicans say they want their leaders in congress to be more confrontational towards president obama. among democrats it's a little different. only 49%, slightly less than have, want more confrontation, so it seems to me that the asymmetry in the party is still there. david, i know the democratic party moves left but the republican party seems like it's become a right wing party, and they are a right wing party on the most visceral basis. you have to be seen seething at president obama, seen that way. >> i think asymmetry is a great word to use there, chris, because i think for a while now democrats, even when they disagree with the president sometimes, you know don't mind compromise, don't mind him trying to reach out to the other side. they didn't like all the compromises say when he tried to pass the stimulus or so much of the compromises he made to get

health care but they kind of accepted that as cost of doing business. that's how you work in a two-party state and a divided government while the republican position has increaseingly become over the last seven, eight years not let's work together but let's be more oppositional more obstructionist than ever. >> yeah. >> and that makes it very hard for jeb bush or other people and chris christie to come out and say, listen can i get things done. i work with democrats. republican voters doesn't want to hear this. they want their vote for a primary candidate to be an act of venting against obama who they seem to hate even if much or not more so than they did when he came into office. it's quite remarkable. >> more rod ratd candidates like jeb bush and scott walker will have to share the debate stage with candidates willing to say anything to appeal to the base. how do you do nuance when this is your competition? watch? >> i've been told he said we're

living in a gestapo age. what do you mean by that? >> i mean very much like nazi germany, and i know you're not supposed to say nazi germany, but i don't care about political correctness. >> and i'll tell you the most important tax reform we should abolish the irs. >> everything he does is against what christians stand for, and he's against the jews in israel. the one group of people that can know they have his undying, unfailing support would be the muslim community. >> i heard jeb bush the other day, and he was talking about people that come into this country illegally. they do it for love and i said say it again. i didn't -- that's one i've never heard of before. i've -- i've heard money. i've heard this. i've heard sex. i've heard everything but one thing i never heard of was love. >> thank you. we'll have you back and david corn it's always good.

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welcome back to "hardball." the u.s. state department released nearly 300 of hillary clinton's e-mails today. many were heavily redacted as is customary with national security issues when they are involved. anyway, secretary clinton spoke with the e-mails today while campaigning up in new hampshire. >> i'm glad that the e-mails are starting to come out. this is something that i've asked to be done as you know for a long time and those releases are beginning. i want people to be able to see all of them and it is the fact that we have released all of them that have any government relationship whatsoever. >> well, secretary clinton said she wants the state department to expedite the release of more of her e-mails and joining me now from new hampshire, half. on, up in new hampshire is

msnbc's alex sidewall out on the trail today. did she get some answers out, more of the muffling through with the white ring and other skeptics asking questions, she keeps giving answers but it never gets concluded. >> reporter: i think with this it will never have a final conclusion. it's going to come down to whether you fundamentally trust hillary clinton or not. if you trust her you think she turned over all the e-mails that were work-related to the state department and everything is more or less above board with maybe a little bit of wiggle room in there. if you don't trust her she never turned over the e-mails and there's some cover up going on and after that -- for her that's fundamentally the issue. been in the public eye for 5 years, people have strongly developed opinions and it's difficult for that to change. >> secretary clinton was asked today about her credibility, her very credibility. let's hear her response. >> do you have a perception

problem? many americans don't believe that you told the truth on bengzy. >> i'm going to led the the americans decide that. >> letting the americans decide. here's the question, i guess, you know alex following this thing. i get e-mails from my friends as well and the question keeps coming up was there a consistent line of what happened in benghazi that came out of the white house, came out of the secretary of state's office in the days after the horror over there when those four americans were killed? was it consistent? >> reporter: well it certainly was not. we know that the talking points that initially came out that susan rice went on the sunday shows and said that this was a spontaneous attack that grew out of a demonstration against that anti-muslim film and later changed that and said this was a terror attack and in the e-mails you can see hillary clinton with her aides making sure she never got on the wrong side of that issue, after it was clarified she never played it on the attack. one of her aides went back to look at all her statements to make sure she was okay on that.

september 27th, two weeks after the attack and it's an e-mail that has draft talking points to the senate intelligence committee and almost the entire thing is redacted so people are wondering, you know, what was in that e-mail and why are we not being able to see that? >> well on september 24th three days before that an e-mail written by her deputy chief of staff outlined her public statement showing concern about how she characterized the attack saying, quote, you never said spontaneous or characterized the motives. in fact, you were careful in your first statement to say you were assessing motive and method. the way you treated the libya and video that some sought to justify the attack on that basis. well, that's a guy going back but still leaves open the question why was susan rice designated to go on the sunday shows after that attack and why wasn't hillary clinton the one to do it since she was the most -- the one most well-positioned to give best estimate of what was going on? >> reporter: well i think this is a question that has been

addressed. they say that hillary clinton was not available to do the sunday shows, essentially bad luck for susan rice to be the one to go out there with the best available talking points at the time. these were talking points that came from the cia that were what the administration says was their best understanding of the situation at the time and that they didn't realize that the talking points were wrong until later and, you know hillary clinton essentially dodged a bullet by not being the one to do that, and i've been told by people who have been involved in the process, who were there at the time, that this was pretty standard practice. somebody would ask for clinton. if she's was unavailable susan rice was the backup. >> yeah well, it didn't quite work out well that way. secretary clinton has agreed to testify publicly before a special committee on benghazi and on that point a group of political insiders from both iowa and new hampshire were polled and 75% of democrats and 58%, a majority of republicans, think this will be beneficial for secretary clinton when she

testifies on benghazi. many of those insiders from both sides say the gop may be overplaying their political hand by hammering clinton on benghazi. so alex, are they beating a dead horse? >> reporter: well, i think, you know definitely democrats think that by getting this out here by getting her in front of the committee, testifying in public they will set a lot of questions at rest. it's the last bite of the apple, as one clinton aide told me with the e-mails there. will always be a segment of the conservative base that this will be a live issue and nothing hillary clinton can do about that to put the fears to rest but for that very narrow segment of undecided voters or soft democrats who still have to get to the polls i think they feel pretty confident that they can convince them that there was nothing untoward here. >> well said. thanks alex seitz-wald. up next big changes could be coming to the boy scouts of america as former defense secretary robert gates the head of the scouts wants to lift the ban on gay scout masters.

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i'm melissa rehberger. president obama has given lawmakers a chance to review and potentially reject any deal with iran. powers have hammered out a framework preventing iran from developing nuclear weapons. a pipeline ruptured spilling thousands of gallons of oil in california. and 28 workers were evacuated after a fire broke out on an oil-drilling platform off new orleans. no injuries have been reported. back to "hardball." pall welcome back to "hardball." the president of the boy scouts of america, former defense secretary robert gates yesterday, urged the organization to end its ban on gay skoult masters. gates, who oversaw the end of the military's don't ask don't

tell policy back in 2010 addressed the issue in his speech yesterday and while he was careful not to enflame tensions over ban he warned the change was inevitable. >> we must deal with the world as it is not as we might wish it would be. the status quo in our members's standards cannot be sustained. if we wait for the courts to act, we could end up with a broad ruling that could forbid any kind of membership standard including our foundational belief and our duty to god and our focus on serving the specific needs of boys. waiting for the courts is a gamble with huge stakes. the one thing we cannot do is put our heads in the sand and pretend that this challenge will go away or abate. quite the opposite is happening. >> well this comes as something of a pivot for gates who last year said he would not reopen the issue during his tenure as leader of the scouts but he

cited cited indiana's upcoming religious freedom law as factors in his reassessment. reaction among scout leaders was mixed and it was noted that gates has a lot of credibility as a leader. >> there were a lot of people looking at each other and going this is not what we expected but leaders lead. bob gates is used to leading. this is not a guy who is used to sitting on the back seat and rubbing his hands and wondering what to do next. he's a leader and he's leading. >> i like that guy. current policy allows gay scouts but bans openly gay adult scoutmasters. we're joined by the "hardball" roundtable perry baker and fran chesso and jonathan allen of vox. perry, i was in the scouts for years and had the time of my life and we're going to talk

about it at the end of the show and i liked as teens spending time with adults on an intellectual basis, we had musicians and would go away to scout camp as service volunteers. i loved it. what do you think this ban possibly going? >> i think bob gates is making a logical decision, in reality the way america is headed saying a person who is gay cannot do anything and being tolerated, i think the supreme court ruling will move things in another direction and we'll have gay marriage everywhere in a few weeks and i think bob gates has acknowledged what happens and you can't have anything that looks or seems like discrimination in today's america. >> i've obviously never been in the boy scouts of america but my husband did make it to the rank of eagle scout and we've been having this discussion allotted and one of the points that he made to me is a lot of scouts are conservatives, religious conservatives actually that the scout meetings are often held in churches, so these are the same

people who oppose same-sex marriage in the first place, and it's because it's a deeply held religious conviction so i'm not sure that just because someone like bob gates says that they think that they should be able to have gay scoutmasters that that is going to sway some of the very religious conservatives involved in the scouts. >> according to secretary gates himself 70% of american boy scout troops are sponsored by religious groups and that's a fact. jonathan, i guess this would require a deal where local parishes or temples would get to decide and i wonder how that would work putting them up to each one what the rules are. >> it's a complete moross zo zmorass and it's rooted in this idea that gay scout masters are likely to pass on being gay to scouts or to be child molesters which is just an absurd line that has been perpetrated over the years against gay people. it's good to see the boy scouts

moving forward. if the u.s. army can have gay service members openly serving, i don't understand why the boy scouts couldn't. >> well this does open up potentially because this doesn't necessarily increase the potential but there are problems with molestation. there was a case several years ago where someone brought the case against the scout leader and it was the national organization of scouts perry, that had to pay. they were the ones with deep pockets. i wonder about that whole question because my church has been a problem and you also have to ask yourself quite bluntly you don't have male scout masters of girl scouts and there has been a separation of the genders for whatever traditional and real reason it's been there. >> yeah. i think that's what gates was talking about. he wants to you know have the scouts on their own, wants to keep the way the process works, about the depend remembers separate, wants to keep that in place, but doesn't want to be accused of discriminating against gays and saying if we lead on the issue first and

allow gay scoutmasters won't change the rest of the boy scouts and keep it the way it is. if they make this change they won't have to go to court over it and that will save them from lawsuits that might more broadly change the boy scouts. >> francesca, your thoughts on that, you'll seen that with the roman catholic churches amazing costs encumbered by priests who misused their authority over young boys. it's a fact. >> i think we'll have to actually look to see what happens with the supreme court ruling that's coming down in a couple of weeks. if the supreme court decides gay marriage is constitutional, you know, it essentially becomes the law of the land then i think the boy scouts are very much going to be under the gun to start changing their laws. if the supreme court doesn't rule that way, then it definitely gives them several more years. >> and it's clear, chris, that the boy scouts should be discriminating against child molesters, not discriminating against people who are gay. >> i know. i agree. in fact i think that so much of life comes down to not what your

orientation is but how responsible you are as an adult. the roundstable staying with us. up next president obama got on twit they are week and the haters were right there with him, but this is disgusting and a portion of our population. what you can do in the dark people do, and apparently these people are going to get caught by the secret service. this is "hardball," the place for politics. i definitely feel the ecoboost in the ford escape. that's like a sports car. i just opened my trunk with my foot. i prefer, without a doubt, the escape over the cr-v. take the ecoboost challenge at your ford dealer. and for a limited-time get an escape with zero percent financing for sixty months plus seven-fifty cash if you own a ford or qualifying competitive vehicle. there's some facts about seaworld we'd like you to know. we don't collect killer whales from the wild. and haven't for 35 years. with the hightest standard of animal care in the world, our whales are healthy. they're thriving. i wouldn't work here if they weren't. and government research shows they live just as long as whales in the wild. caring for these whales, we have a great responsibility to get that right. and we take it very seriously. because we love them.

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referendum. msnbc's chief global correspondent bill neely is in dublin with the latest. bill? >> reporter: chris, hello. the polls have just closed here in ireland and all the indications are that there has been a very very big turnout for what is already an historic referendum. ireland is the first country in the world to put the issue of same-sex marriage to its entire population and there is a feeling here especially among young people, that ireland is about to take another historic step and allow gay marriage to be written into the irish constitution. ireland has had referenda in the past on social issues, sometimes very bitter and divisive social issues such as divorce and abortion but never before has any country put it to the entire population on gay marriage. ireland was an extremely conservative country 30 years ago, a country where divorce, where abortion where

homosexuality was illegal. those things began to change in the 1990s, and the catholic church began to lose a lot of its power as well due largely to child sex scandals which involve catholic priests. a lot of people turn their backs on the church turn their backs on the church teaching, and although the church today has been there for the last week has been arcing for a no vote no to same-sex marriage, a lot of people simply aren't listening to the church anymore. pews are empty, and they are deciding that ireland should be a more liberal country. it's if the opinion polls are to be believed, and we know on both sides of the atlantic opinion polls have to be taken with a huge pinch of salt but they were predicting before this vote that there would be a solid vote to allow gay marriage. back to you, chris. >> thank you, bill neely, over in dublin. we'll get those results from ireland tomorrow. and we'll be right back after this.

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my nutrition. planters. nutrition starts with nut. we're back with our roundtable perry, francesca and jonathan. well president barack obama officially joined twitter as we know on monday and quickly set a world record by attaining 1 million followers within five hours. his twitter debut also enlisted an onslaught of hateful reaction from his enemies. among the most hostile were tweets containing racial epithets as well as not-so-subtle threats to the president's life and here's an example. the "new york times" pointed out today, quote, one person posted a doctored image of mr. obama's famous campaign poster showing the president with a head in his noose, his eyes close and his neck appearing broken as he had

been lynched, as if he had been lynched instead of the word hope in capital letters as it appeared on campaign posters the doctored image had the word rope. it's like the kind of gross racist graffiti you often find on a waffle men's rooms. anyway, while trollings and invariably downside of the internet where users can hide behind the veil of anonymity the vitriol was inflammatory enough to warrant a question at yesterday's white house briefing. here's what press secretary josh earnest had to say about this stuff. >> those kinds of images and that kind of language is you know all too common on the internet. i'm sure that some of you guys see that on your twitter feeds as well and my guess is we spend a lot of time trying to block those kinds of message, we probably spend a lot of time blocking people on the internet so, again, i -- i'll let the secret service speak to what sort of threat they may -- how they assess these threats and how seriously they need to take

them. >> as the "washington post" reports, not only does the secret service already monitor twitter for threats, but the white house is or diving each and everyt archiving each and everything that potus, actually the president, tooet tweeters say. anyway, i want to get back to frn chess ka chambers on this. francesco, i think when you watch c-span anytime there's an unfiltered way for people to talk, they say the most amazing things. they can be anti-semantic, anti-black. it's amazing this country is quite willing to have its voice say. >> andite not just the president. it's any elected leader. heck, it's even people in the media, people on television. i honestly cannot say on air some of the things that have been said about me on twitter after appearances like this one. i mean i myself have had some really, really horrible things said by people who don't -- you don't even know me. so i just think there is a huge segment of the population out there who is going to say these

sorts of things about people regardless of whether it's the president and it's discouraging and, you know it's awful. >> for social media is such a hateful place sometimes, people are so angry and, you know i don't -- i don't personally pretend to understand it. i think what josh earnest was saying today is a little bit reminiscent of the 2008 campaign. i think the obama campaign was getting hit with racism and some vandalism and campaign offices. they tried to play it down temporarily. i think that's probably the right thing to do. >> you know just -- jonathan what are trolls? i want you to tell me what a troll is. is that the kind of person that waits for gene robinson or somebody to wait for you to write a comment and then they immediately go in and attack whatever comes up just to get on that list of comments? just to use the person's thoughtful column to get their face in there? >> that's right. a troll is somebody who just runs around trying to disrupt other folks, trying to mess up what they've done trying to --

well, to troll them because it's now a verb. >> perry, let me ask you about the first lady. when she's appeared lately her concern is probably a stronger word for it about this racism that's so receipt sent in the country. i wonder if it's because she knows about the secret service information about the president, if she knows what warnings they've gotten what threats they've gotten that have been seen now in these twitter comments, these tweets? >> yeah i think they do know. i remember doing the '08 campaign. michelle obama had to reassure people who were worried that the president would get shot if he ran for president the way mlk was. i know she told people security is good he's going to be safe. that is true and that is something black people were particularly worried about. president obama has now won two elections, he's one of the most admired people in the country. there's a small fraction of people saying these really bad things, i would say, with a much

larger -- we've seen a great racial change in the last six years that have been very positive, accepting having a black president. so i don't want to overemphasize a few tweets over this bigger broader change. >> i think there's also so much attention placed on the president, you know, and i think that's part of the season that we're seeing this. again, this does not happen to other politicians or other people in the media, public figures on a daily basis at the same, i would say, level of vitriol. i think people are noticing this more because it is the president of the united states. >> do people ever do it to you in person friend chess ka or is it always the featured message? >> no b, people would not say these things. that's the point. because they're able to hide behind the anonymity of the internet, they say hateful things. sometimes i respond to try to make them feel bad about it. sometimes it's interesting to see the responses back. some people will say, oh gosh

i didn't expect you to respond back. that's rare. >> i don't think anybody would have the courage to go say that to francesca's face. >> over the years, i've had -- i've had people say things to me that very much reflect their secret motives and hatreds. so they are -- start a fight of some kind. i don't think anybody is afraid but there's an anger out here. you put the anger over just the way people are today. they're angry about something. maybe it's the middle class squeeze or something economic. but you put together angry like they've been cut off the highway in some way and they go after their add misty. it seems to be a compounding thing for these trolls. >> and they are a good life and the internet empowers them in a way that -- you know twitter has only existed for seven or eight years. you have this anonymity one and you have this anger, too, and you have people sit at their computers who would never come up to obama's face or anybody

else's face and say these thing. now the courage behind their computer, they're showing the courage of their mom's basement is what we're seeing. >> the old way of communicating -- >> i was going to say, could you imagine if these people actually met the president? they would not say this to their face. >> they used to send them out in these thin envelopes with no return address on them the airmail address, really thin envelopes. they would scratch it out in handwriting and it wasn't very good handwriting. they would say then what they thought. i used to get them in the old days when i was wrung a column. anyway, thank you for joining us. have a nice weekend, everybody. let me finish with the joy of scouting. it is a good thing. you're watching "hard ball," the place for politics. ♪ (father:) no, it isn't... ♪ ok, i guess it's not. ♪ you got it booking right. booking.com booking.yeah

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let me finish tonight with the push to end the ban on gay scout masters. i hope we can work this out in a way that keeps scouting a vital force in this country. some of my treasured times growing up were in scouting on the delaware river between pennsylvania and new jersey. those weeks up there fill me with memories of parade ground canoe trips and campfires and father's night when the dads came up to visit. i had a special advantage in those years as a member of the order of the arrow, the scott honor society and service organization. i got to spend weekends working at camps during the off season. it was a chance for older scouts like us to spend time as equals

with young men who had kept up their interest in scouting. there was nothing like good work to bring people together. i'm hoping the men of good will will find a way to keep scouting alive .bring good men in the door to keep going what was for me a great part of growing up scout's honor. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> i would submit to you that every single issue is moral. >> the scandal around america's cable culture warriors continues to erupt. guess which presidential candidate is standing by their duggar? dan savage is here with reaction. then, the unbelievable way this politician just announced a love child with his former receptionist. >> everybody knows that chase is my boy. >> plus the 12-year-old shot and killed by cleveland police. tonight, why six months later there are no charges in the case of